- A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea sheds light on how the regime tightly censors content. Measures include automatically replacing popular South Korean words with regime-approved terms and recording screenshots of user activity for officials to review.
A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea has given a glimpse into how Kim Jong Un’s regime censors information in the isolated and secretive country.
The phone, which was smuggled out of the country late last year by a Seoul-based media organization, Daily NK, and later obtained by the BBC, was programmed to censor certain language and record screenshots of the user’s activity. The smartphone does not have access to the internet as North Korea blocks information from outside the country.
According to a BBC report, the smartphone takes screenshots of the user’s actions every five minutes and saves them in a file the user can see but not open. Only the North Korean authorities can open the files, allowing them to review what users are looking at.
Popular South Korean words like “oppa,” which literally translates to big brother but has become South Korean slang for a boyfriend, are automatically replaced with the word “comrade.” Users also receive a warning; in this example, it said: “This word can only be used to describe your siblings.”
The Korean word for “South Korea” is also replaced with “puppet state.”
This reflects a broader effort by the regime to eliminate South Korean cultural influence and control citizens, even down to how people speak.
An ‘information war’ between North and South Korea
North Korea is one of the most isolated and authoritarian countries in the world and has been ruled by the Kim dynasty since its founding in 1948.
The regime maintains strict control over its population through surveillance, propaganda, and an extensive network of informants. Citizens are cut off from the global internet, and even minor infractions, such as watching foreign media, can result in severe punishment.
Recently, South Korea has been smuggling more foreign content into the neighboring state as part of a covert “information war.” The aim is to expose North Koreans to the outside world, especially what life is like for people in South Korea, who experience more freedom and wealth.
South Korea and various NGOs employ multiple tactics to do this, including blaring loudspeakers at the border and secretly distributing USB sticks and SD cards filled with K-dramas, pop songs, and pro-democracy material into North Korea. The underground effort is run by NGOs like Unification Media Group (UMG).
North Korea has intensified its crackdowns in response, enforcing stricter laws, surveillance, executions, and “youth crackdown squads” that police citizens’ behavior and language.
Efforts to smuggle the restricted information into North Korea have also been impacted by President Trump’s cuts to foreign aid projects.
The administration has reduced funding for key media projects that are working on getting information into the country, like Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.